Metagame Strategies
In this article, there will be a variety of strategies. People are free to post their strategies here, although FailingAtFailing (Austin.Micheal.Seto) highly reccomends posting your strategy at the forums before posting them here, as we want strategies here to be deemed viable by the community, and thus actually helpful. You can click this sentence to go to the forums. Also, please check to see if a strategy similar to your strategy has been posted here. Duplicate strategies, or highly similar ones will not help. If you posted your strategy on the forums, please provide a link to your forum topic for reference. Don't make your strategy too specific, it should be flexible and adaptable. As of January 10, 2014, FailingAtFailing has deleted all strategies as part of a proposed wiki clean-up. This allows new strategies to be posted that are more relevant to the current metagame which has changed since many of the strategies here were posted. General Terms Before you delve into the metagame, you should know some terms General Tactics These are strategies that should be used almost all the time, if not in every match, as these basic strategies are crucial to success. Kiting Quite possibly the most prominent piece of micro in games featuring Order. Basically involves maneuvering your Archidonis in such a way that it is similar to them moving and attacking at the same time. Theoretically, can be done with any ranged unit, however this section will only cover Archidonis. Can be done running forwards and backwards. Backwards Kiting The most common form of kiting. Archidonis will be running backwards away from the enemy. When their bows are loaded, command them to garrison. They will spin around, fire an arrow, then resume moving backwards instantly. To fire again, you must tell them to begin moving backwards instead of garrison. You can continue this as long as the map allows, or until the enemy catches up to your Archidonis. Forwards Kiting A less commonly seen form of kiting. Usually done Early-Game or Mid-Game to chase down weakened units. When an Archidonis' bow is loaded, right click on a specific enemy to have them fire and then immediately click ahead of them to have them resume moving forward, cancelling the firing animation, but still firing anyway. Meat Shield Many units in the game have very low health, so to provide some protection for them (atleast from projectiles) you should have bulkier units placed in front of them. Generally, this consists of both kinds of giants and Speartons. Multiple Speartons in Shield Wall are more effective in the metagame (as of January 10, 2014) due to them being cheaper than giants, more mobile and being able to stun automatically stun multiple oncoming melee attackers with Shield Bash. However, giants have the advantage in pure bulk and being able to protect air units, which Speartons cannot do (One exception to this is when Speartons 'shield' albowtross by swarming around the enemy ranged units blocking them from shooting into the air). Giants also have a unique role in preventing targetted abilities from hitting their intended targets. Basically, put your meat shield unit in front of your frail spell casters or archers. If you are facing targetted ability users such as Shadowrath, Medusa or Marrowkai, you may opt to place your Magikill directly behind your giant (if you have one) so it cannot be clicked. You will still be able to use spells from it with hotkeys, but your opponent will not be able to target it, instead hitting the giant. Common Strategies A list of commonly seen strategies. Click this sentence for the original forum topic As in the forum topic, each strategy has a rating for ease of use, countering, what ratings you would see it (essentially telling you how viable it is), comments, and the execution and countering of said strategy. Wording may be slightly different from forum topic. Spearton Rush *Ease of Use: 1/10 *Ease of Countering: 4/10 *Common at: 1500 and below *Comments: Very simple, works best if your opponent doesn't expect it and prepare for it Information This strategy usually starts by going for a quick Spearton for the first purchase. This is accomplished by using both miners to quickly pray for mana. Someone using this would hold a defensive position and use only a portion of their Speartons (keeping the rest hidden) until they have as many Speartons as their population allows. Once this point is reached, the person using this strategy would attempt to run past all units and attack the statue, quickly destroying it. Countering Someone using this strategy will usually hold a defensive position, allowing you to take the tower. Using the tower spawn, you can harass their miners, slowing them down. To counter the actual rush, if you have the tower, place two miner walls as close to the tower as possible to delay them. During this delay, your units can attack the Speartons. When one is destroyed, build another closer to your statue to constantly delay them. At your actual castle, Resilience will double the amount of time it takes Speartons to destroy the statue, while triple castle archers will deal massive splash damage. Feasible units to use are Albowtrosses and Magikill. A few Albowtrosses with blazing bolts will do extreme damage to Speartons, quickly disposing of them. Magikill can be positioned on the statue so that they can cast an electric wall on themselves. This will protect both themselves and the statue from Speartons attacking it, as they would recieve massive damage if they do so. Poison will help wear them down and a single blast centered on a group of Speartons will remove an entire bar of health from all of them. Sparcher (Spear + Archer) This strategy has changed immensely since the auto-shield bash patch. The pre-auto-shield bash version is at the forum topic for legacy purposes. Only the post-auto-shield bash version will be here. *Ease of Use: 2/10 *Ease of Countering: 7/10 *Common at: All rating levels *Comment: Simple, reliable and deadly effective. Very logical for many players to use, given the two main units' intended purposes. Information Sparcher is highly used in the current metagame. It is simple and effective and almost any start can be morphed into this strategy. With 6 Speartons (One Line) one using this strategy can create a very effective line of defense. Using Shield Wall and Shield Bash (Automatic, which is what made this strategy so prevalent) the Speartons form a very difficult to penetrate defense which is highly mobile. Having essentially 10 bars of health for each Spearton which is Armoured, it is incredibly tough to take down, especially with Meric support healing them. Projectiels will be easily shrugged off and you would need more than 6 melee units to actually get through the wall (6 will be stunned with each bash) and those melee units must be able to survive a volley of arrows fired at them. Countering With the automatic shield bash, this is incredibly difficult to counter. An obvious solution would be to have possibly one or two full grown giants tank arrows for Albowtrosses with blazing bolts firing down at the Speartons or Archidonis. Of course, the Speartons will most likely assume an offense and rush one of the giants, wearing it down quickly. It is also possible to constantly harass the wall to wear it down until it dies, but this would be difficult if they use Meric support. Giant Mass *Ease of Use: 3/10 *Ease of Countering: 6/10 *Common at: 1600 and below *Comment: Losing popularity, but still seen Information Giants have extreme health and damaging potential, esepcially if the user of this strategy cycles weakened giants to the back of the army. Used due to the simplicity associated with simply making giants and moving them forwards. Countering This is commonly done with Enslaved Giants because Chaos Giants can easily be kited to death. Thus, due to their ability to only hit one unit at a time, A mass of raging Swordwrath , or a Spearton Rush could work. Due to the fact that Giants are armoured, mass Albowtrosses protected by giants would destroy giants. Sometimes though, there will be a mage for exactly these units, in which case Shadowrath support may be needed in the form of Shinobi. Magikill can deal massive damage with Electric Wall on the extremely slow Giants. However, the easiest way to counter this mass is not allowing it to happen by preventing the miners from mining gold through economy harassment. Archer Mass *Ease of Use: 4/10 *Ease of Countering: 5/10 *Common at: 1500-1800 *Comment: More common than you would think. Usually used early to mid-game before morphing into Sparcher or similar strategy. Most effective on Grass Hills Information Usually started with the dual Archidonis start, which is done by setting both miners to gold and buying only a single Archidonis to begin. Leftover gold would be enough for a second when miners bring in first gold batch. Dual Archer start is usually a surprise to the middle ranks, which is probably the basis behind the strategy. Eventually, melee units will be brought in if the opponent starts to bring archers. The trade off of one Swordwrath for an Archidonis is worth it. Someone using this strategy will implement guerilla hit and run tactics to wear down your army. If you chase them, your units will be kited, killing many units that try to get close. Countering Magikill will be able to quickly kill Archers with any of their spells. In fact, protected Magikill are the main counter to this strategy. Ninja Rush *Ease of Use: 4/10 *Ease of Countering: 5/10 *Common at: 1400-1700 *Comment: Very similar to Spearton Rush, slightly more advanced though. Seen due to being a slightly more effective Spearton Rush Information Users of this strategy will attempt to get a Shadowrath as soon as possible to sway the game in their favour. Other than that, works very similar to the Spearton Rush in which the Shadowrath will rush straight to the statue. Countering A mass of Raging Swordwrath will reduce the effectiveness of Shinobi and Fixate. Castle Archers will be even deadlier to Shadowrath than to Speartons due to the Shadowrath's lack of armour. Miner Walls prevent economy harassment and slow down the ninjas for a bit. Countering is very similar to countering Spearton Rush. Giants + Albowtross *Ease of Use: 4/10 *Ease of Countering: 7/10 *Common at: 1700 and higher *Comment: Very high damage output, usually assisted by Shadowrath to counter Magikill. Information These two expensive units will require someone executing this strategy to form a defensive position with extreme economy. The extreme damage outputted by the final army is very difficult to match. Countering A Spearton Rush will be able to run past the Giants and Albowtrosses. They can then destroy the statue with extreme prejudice. If the person using this strategy lacks Shadowrath, Magikill protected by Giants may be able to poison many units, killing many of them and many more with blast and electric wall. Of course, due to the extreme costs of both these units, sufficient economy harassment may prevent the person from executing this strategy in the first place. Shadalbow *Ease of Use: 5/10 *Ease of Countering: 8/10 *Common at: 1500-1900 *Comment: Eliminates the use of many key elements in an army (mages, armour) leaving the rest to the mercy of these two units. Very deadly. Information One using this strategy will morph into it from a normal start. However, it will soon become evident that they are using many miners for mana (as massing Shadowrath and Albowtrosses is very mana intensive) Usually the first unit that can tip off the use of this strategy is a Shadowrath. Countering A very effective counter is Archer Mass, as kiting Archidonis will do heavy damage to chasing Shadowrath and will outrun and outrange Albowtrosses. Another possible counter is Giants and Albowtrosses. By having all your Albowtrosses target the enemy Albowtrosses first, they will lose their ranged capability (your giants protect your own Albowtrosses from a similar fate) and then their Shadowrath will be defenseless against the Albowtrosses. Of course, preventing them from building such an army with economy harassment could be easier. Fatty Turtle Contributed by jerrytt *Ease of Use: 7/10 *Ease of Countering: 9/10 *Common at: 2100 and higher *Comment: Almost impossible to counter once it has been set up, and on medium and long maps setting up is very simple. Information This strategy relies on 5 key units/upgrades: Castle archer, Spearton Wall, Miner wall, Meric, and Magikill. The idea is that you hold them off with a sword or two long enough to get a castle archer without denting your economy. Then, Tech up to Speartons and buy the shield wall upgrade. Also buy a miner wall. Place the spearton and wall In front of the second row of gold mines, and get merics and speartons to hold the enemy off long enough for you to get a Magikill. Once you have your mage your turtle is complete, and you are protected from both spearton attacks, (castle archers, walls, mages) and Archer attacks (mages and Speartons in shield mode with Merics) This can protect you until they tech up or have a huge advantage over you to break the turtle (unlikely) Once you have it set up, you can Giant mass, shadowalbow, albow mass, etc. go crazy :/ Countering Almost impossible, requires preventing the use of this strategy in the first place, or somehow getting a huge tech advantage to break the turtle. Category:Micro and Macro Category:Strategy